Prosecutors: Our case got stronger when Bobby took the stand’

His own words did him in. When Bobby L. Cutts Jr. testified on his own behalf, it strengthened the case for the team of trial lawyers trying to convict him, Stark County prosecutors said.

Benjamin Duer

His own words did him in.
When Bobby L. Cutts Jr. testified on his own behalf, it strengthened the case for the team of trial lawyers trying to convict him, Stark County prosecutors said.
“Our case got stronger when Bobby took the stand,” assistant prosecutor Dennis Barr told reporters Wednesday after the sentencing.
The former Canton police officer was convicted in the deaths of his former girlfriend, Jessie M. Davis, and their unborn daughter, Chloe, by a jury Feb. 15. He was sentenced Wednesday.
Cutts took the stand in his own defense Feb. 11. Attempting to explain Davis’ death, Cutts told jurors it was an accident and that he panicked June 14.
Cutts, along with co-defendant Myisha Ferrell, took the body to a Summit County park, where they left it.
Nine days later, Cutts led investigators to the decomposed remains.
Assistant county prosecutor Chryssa Hartnett said FBI officials were instructed to appeal to Cutts’ ego, so that he would think, “I might look better if I help.”
And he did.
After Wednesday’s sentencing, Barr told reporters: “Frankly, I didn’t think he would testify. So when he did, it took me by surprise.”
He said Cutts told a different version of events to the jury, different than the story he told investigators or the story he told his own family in mid-June. Barr believed Cutts’ testimony was bogus.
“I think his testimony and his demeanor on the stand assisted us in getting a conviction in this case.”
Hartnett said Cutts might have gotten away with the murders, if not for his own actions -- involving Ferrell and leading investigators to the body.
Except for cell phone calls, there was no hard evidence.
So Hartnett said Ferrell’s testimony was an “integral part” of this conviction. “Her testimony helped shed light on the mechanism of death,” though jurors heard a soft version, she said.
Prosecutor John Ferrero said Cutts’ attorneys were never offered a deal, though, one was discussed. Ferrero said they would’ve offered life without parole.
But Hartnett said: “His decisions allowed us to have a case.”
Canton Repository